the midst of the temperate zone, or perhaps under the equator, that
[604]paradise of the world, ubi semper virens laurus, &c. where is a
perpetual spring: the longitude for some reasons I will conceal. Yet be
it known to all men by these presents, that if any honest gentleman
will send in so much money, as Cardan allows an astrologer for casting
a nativity, he shall be a sharer, I will acquaint him with my project,
or if any worthy man will stand for any temporal or spiritual office or
dignity, (for as he said of his archbishopric of Utopia, 'tis sanctus
ambitus, and not amiss to be sought after,) it shall be freely given
without all intercessions, bribes, letters, &c. his own worth shall be
the best spokesman; and because we shall admit of no deputies or
advowsons, if he be sufficiently qualified, and as able as willing to
execute the place himself, be shall have present possession. It shall
be divided into 12 or 13 provinces, and those by hills, rivers,
roadways, or some more eminent limits exactly bounded. Each province
shall have a metropolis, which shall be so placed as a centre almost in
a circumference, and the rest at equal distances, some 12 Italian miles
asunder, or thereabout, and in them shall be sold all things necessary
for the use of man; statis horis et diebus, no market towns, markets or
fairs, for they do but beggar cities (no village shall stand above 6,
7, or 8 miles from a city) except those emporiums which are by the sea
side, general staples, marts, as Antwerp, Venice, Bergen of old,
London, &c. cities most part shall be situated upon navigable rivers or
lakes, creeks, havens; and for their form, regular, round, square, or
long square, [605]with fair, broad, and straight [606]streets, houses
uniform, built of brick and stone, like Bruges, Brussels, Rhegium
Lepidi, Berne in Switzerland, Milan, Mantua, Crema, Cambalu in Tartary,
described by M. Polus, or that Venetian Palma. I will admit very few or
no suburbs, and those of baser building, walls only to keep out man and
horse, except it be in some frontier towns, or by the sea side, and
those to be fortified [607] after the latest manner of fortification,
and situated upon convenient havens, or opportune places. In every so
built city, I will have convenient churches, and separate places to
bury the dead in, not in churchyards; a citadella (in some, not all) to
command it, prisons for offenders, opportune market places of all
sorts, for corn, meat, cattle, fuel, fish, commodious courts of
justice, public halls for all societies, bourses, meeting places,
armouries, [608]in which shall be kept engines for quenching of fire,
artillery gardens, public walks, theatres, and spacious fields allotted
for all gymnastic sports, and honest recreations, hospitals of all
kinds, for children, orphans, old folks, sick men, mad men, soldiers,
pest-houses, &c. not built precario, or by gouty benefactors, who, when
by fraud and rapine they have extorted all their lives, oppressed whole
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